We are excited to announce HEAL Fund II's latest investment - a US$ 15m commitment to Crimson Education. Crimson is the world's leading college admissions consulting platform, helping students from around the world gain access to leading colleges and universities. Crimson also operates Crimson Global Academy, a global, leading online private school, connecting world-class teachers to ambitious students. HEAL first invested in Crimson, through Fund I, three years ago, and have been thrilled with the company's progress and development since. We look forward to building on our relationship with Jamie Beaton and the Crimson team. HEAL Partner, Martin Dalgleish, has joined the board of Crimson as part of this investment. This investment is the third completed deal for Fund II, following investments in Removery, the world's leading tattoo removal platform headquartered in Austin, Texas, and in The Fertility Partners, Canada's leading fertility platform. We are also in the final stages of diligence for Fund II's fourth investment - further details will be announced in the next few weeks! Fund II recently secured Second Close at ~A$ 200m, i.e. approximately the same size as Fund I, with strong indication of further commitments into Final Close targeted in mid-2025.
CEO, Crimson Education | Harvard | Stanford | Rhodes | Yale | Princeton | Forbes 30 Under 30
Excited to share a major milestone for Crimson Education - we have just closed a $67 million Series D led by Movac, and cemented our place as the first K-12 Edtech in Australia and New Zealand to achieve Unicorn status. I am very excited to work with Mark Vivian, Martin Dalgleish and a variety of other outstanding investors and partners including HEAL Partners Five Sigma HighSage Ventures Icehouse Ventures and Tiger Global Management on the next stage of Crimson's global growth. We are also delighted to welcome Hon David Cunliffe, the former leader of the New Zealand Labour Party to our advisory board. David grew up in NZ, won a scholarship to study at United World College and pursued his postgraduate education at Harvard University. He worked at BCG before taking his experience back to New Zealand through government. He is an inspiring example for our young Kiwi Crimson students of leveling up on the world stage and bettering the society that made you who you are. We are pumped to welcome NFL Legend Larry Fitzgerald Jr. as an investor to Crimson. He is inspiring for our students, especially our athletes at Crimson Global Academy. As a Kiwi, it gives me enormous pride to partner up with one of the nation's best venture funds Movac and with one of the leaders in the venture ecosystem in Mark Vivian. Mark and I share a common belief that Kiwis need to compete on the world stage and can't exist in a learning bubble. At a time where truancy is nearing all time highs across New Zealand schools and we have a challenged national curriculum that is years behind rigorous international alternatives like A Levels and the International Baccalaureate, we need innovative options for high school students to achieve their full potential. Crimson Global Academy led by Penelope Barton has already helped young Kiwis like Jade Sceats go from Kerikeri to Princeton University and we're just getting started. Since 2019, we’ve seen significant growth in our accredited online high school which now has nearly 2,000 students from around the world - accessing a flexible and diverse education, taught by 200 world-class teachers. Looking within, what’s also changed for me is how my ambitions have been lifted. I’ve been fortunate to experience what a world-class education looks like, having studied at Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Oxford, Princeton University, and Tsinghua University, a natural accompaniment to building Crimson. As Crimson grows to over a $1bn in valuation and I complete my tenth degree at King's College London, I reflect on what’s changed - but also what’s remained constant. Today, I’m more confident than ever that a world-class education is the best way to expand kids’ horizons and raise their ambitions. Crimson’s greatest contribution is not some kind of magic short cut but a rigorous, world-class education system to unlock a purposeful life, where our students have the confidence and tools to excel on a global stage.